Implication of the decker / rigger change., Low cost deckers??? Options

[Edward]

Implication of the decker / rigger change.
Low cost deckers???

Without the need for a clunky cyber deck and presumably without the need for programs (where would you store them if you had no cyber deck?) what will deckers spend there money on. I have always seen a decker as a resources a pick but now it seems they need nothing.

There is some talk about a form of C^2 deck becoming the standard but that doesn’t make much sense to me, why would thy do away with the external cyber deck in favour of something so costly and essence intensive, the only reason to take one was covert operation.

Also riggers will become more powerful, with les spend on there interface hardware (RCD) they will be able to spend that money on more starting vehicles.

And what will happen to the otaku. There howl advantage is gone if nobody needs a deck, I can see a howl plot line of the depressed otaku that are no longer special.

Edward


Edward

[blakkie]

The "clunky" disappears. But that doesn't mean no deck. It -might- mean internal only deck, but not nessasarily. But in any event they are going to need the wi-fi hardware and -some- way to translate that into human senses.

Exactly how you arrived at RCD stuff I'm not sure?

P.S. I heard from a friend's cousin's mother who's hairdresser is a playtester that in 2069 Otaku are exposed as all being flesh forms of software bug spirits. Ares steps in and does The Right Thing™ and shoots them all. The end. :rotate:

[Vuron]

Honestly Otaku need to universally suffer from a 9mm migraine.

As for the decker/rigger change maybe the deck replacement for the future uses modular pieces that can both access the wireless matrix and help command drones.

If I really wanted to increase playability of Riggers I'd place thier reaction boosting equipment within the deck replacement like reaction enhancers for the SR3 decks. That way you can save the essence cost and limited utility of VCRs that impact thier playability and have them be able to enhance themselves in different ways.

[blakkie]

[Vuron]

I think the base command chair mode shouldn't require RAS override but if you want to really max out the capabilities of a vehicle or drone it should cost you a bit.

So if you mainly want some drones to supplement your team you can walk around with them but if you want to take firm control of a specific drone you need to lay down against a wall and enter that device.

[NightHaunter]

C'mon leave the otaku alone.
Evolution is when somthing changes to cope with changes in its environment and unless i'm mistaken computers are a, not all that recent, change in our environment.
Also evey few centuries evolution jumps foreward.

On second thoughts just shoot a few. :D

[Edward]

Ok we have slights against the playability of riggers. I found them to be the most powerful combat archetype at char gen (magicals with invoking may win latter).

The idea of a hacker seeing a cameras a assessable icon from the real world is stupid. It implies that the camera is using a wireless interface witch can be decoded in a reasonably short time frame. (seconds). This means the security contractors ignored basic protocols to prevent signal interference. Wireless connections may be convenient but they are inherently insecure. If a computer hacker can pull this kind of stunt it only proves that. And the first time somebody dose it every security installer will be buying rolls of cable by the dozen

What would make scene is an overlay interface on a hacker’s vision that shows him where he is in the matrix. Allowing him to run overwatch in vaguely the SR3 fashion. While physically participating in the run (probably a -2 penalty to all tests while viewing both worlds). If he is in a building and its security host at the same time the program would automatically link a camera seen to the corresponding camera icon in the security host but only if you previously hacked into the security host.

Edward

[mfb]

i really wish people would pay attention to what the playtesters say, and do the minimal amount of sitting down and thinking that it takes to connect the dots. in this particular case, for instance, several of the freelancers have outright stated that there are still cyberdecks, and that the key word in that FAQ is "clunky". therefore, it might be logical to assume that there are still cyberdecks in SR4, but that they won't be cyberdeck-sized. they might be palm-pilot sized, or they might be 0.1 essence chip installed in your head sized. hell, they might be a computer that stays in one place, that you access over the Intarwebs. whatever form they take, though, it's clear from playtester comments that cyberdecks are still around in some form or fashion in SR4.

and, actually, wirelessly hacking a camera implies nothing about the camera. it merely implies that the computer the camera is hooked into has wireless connectivity.

[Fortune]

[blakkie]

[Edward]

[blakkie]

[mfb]

i'm going off what's been said by the playtesters on the boards. one of the things that several playtesters have said is that the FAQs don't quite give the whole story on the issues they touch.

[Raskolnikov]

There's a difference between accepting some flex in technology and pretending physics are different in SR. Hopefully, unlike old Decking, the designers will go with the prior.

[blakkie]

[hobgoblin]

[audun]

[mfb]

no, see. when the wireless decker sees that camera, the camera isn't the one that shows him its icon. the computer system that the camera is hooked up to shows the decker the camera's icon, because the decker has already hacked the computer via wireless connection and has access to the computer's physical security control functions. anybody who doesn't have that access, legitimate or hacked, sees just a regular camera with no icon.

[audun]

[Raskolnikov]

It is possible the camera communicates with the network via an insecure standard data tansfer protocol, as opposed to a dedicated video fee protocol. There are advanatages to having every datatype use one communication protocol, it's the kind of thing we see today. The hacker may have gained access to the company system through the building matrix link, something needs to supply wandering managers with real-time data about their team members' workloads. The hacker may have come through the more guarded but potentially venerable servers for advertisement or matrix presence (webservers) or their communications interfaces (mail servers).

In a perfect, secure, world systems would follow a shelled security structure that isolated critical systems and chocked any access to the outside that they absolutely had to have. I doubt the new system will allow this, since it's not as cyber-punky, but they'd have to really screw up the system to match the ingrained vulnerability of architecture that the Matrix protocols represented. Never mind the sheer insanity of processing allocation and work division.

[mfb]

because it's the same computer that's used for research, accounting, sales, and the CEO's massive pr0n collection. at least, that seems to be how SR's hosts seem to work: you have one big computer that handles everything.

[blakkie]

[blakkie]

BTW those of you freaking about the idea of wi-fi security devices, keep this in mind:

1) 100's of thousands, if not millions of security systems in North America run partially or fully on remote radio frequency sensors. It is common for home security systems to use these. Why? Because they are much easier to install or extend in existing homes than it is to run wires. Lower end systems, yes. But 'runners aren't always going to be breaking into the Pentagon or Ares military compounds.
2) Even with wires running to security devices there is hot tapping, or at least in SR3 (Rigger 3) there was. The extra deterrent of having to hot tap isn't huge given the normal barrier (the walls) to hot tapping doesn't exist in SR for any building with an external keypad, cardreader, etc. They just need an Electronics check (i believe) to pop off the device cover and away they go with about the same difficulty of penetrating a SR3 radio frequency network (drones, Rigger 3).
3) There are security devices that require some sort of remote system, either direct LOS light based or radio frequency. Mobile drones are what spring to mind here. You could have the drones being controled by a separate system, perhaps with a dedicated rigger. But that's money and a barrier to coordinating security breach responses.
4) Even today business networks are often built partially with wi-fi nodes. Properly set up they are fairly hard to spoof into, but in SR(3) reality bends and you can crack advanced encryption schemes in minutes or even seconds. *shrug* Once on the system via a different subsystem it's a matter of the hacker working their way to where they want to be.
5) Millions more security systems right now rely on radio frequency activation/deactivation. If you happen to have a car made in the last 5 years there is a good chance it has one of these. Even some home security systems use key fobs, and remote garage doors (a primative electronic security system) have been around for decades now.
6) Security isn't about being undefeatable. It is about being a deterent. Being hard enough and/or risky enough to beat that it isn't worth the effort. But sometimes the payoff or difficulty is incorrectly estimated, giving the assailants the edge. Runners make a living out of exploiting edges.

So there are some situations where totally hardwired systems, or more likely fully issolated subsystems, are used. But there are plenty of reasons for using a system based partially or fully on RF (wi-fi) communications.

P.S. In Rigger 3 building security was already an overlap domain for Deckers and Riggers. That is why I suspect this is an area where the Hacker domain begins, with one foot in both the old fields.

[Edward]

A comprehensive security system in an era when RF can be intercepted and decoded in minutes and an electronic keypad can be used to hack into a hardwired system (not likely but that I will accept) a security system should be hardwired and every access point (including key pads and cameras) should be watched by a camera, this may sound like a lot of work but it is only 2 cameras in each room, corridor and 2 or more watching each entry. Now if somebody tries to tap into your hardwired system you will see him doing it.

Edward

[blakkie]